She said she might like to become a teacher or an engineer, but for now Lake Orion High School freshman Nicole Fortin’s field of expertise is office programs.
Fortin, a member of LOHS’ newly-formed Business Professionals of America Club, placed second in the regional on Jan. 10 at Baker College in Flint, and seventh in the state competition at the Renaissance Center in Detroit on March 7-9. Fortin competed in the area of office programs, working with Word, Excell, Access and PowerPoint.
Asked how she was introduced to the club, Fortin said “My business foundations teacher gave us information about it, and I decided to do it.” The office programs Fortin worked with in competition were ones she had just learned about in class.
“At the state competition, there are different leadership concentration workshops, and there are 60-70 events to compete in,” said LOHS business teacher Jennifer Ohlrich. “There’s lots of preparation required for that.”
Some of the other events students competed in were: Accounting, keyboarding, financial services, web page design and graphic design.
LOHS’ club currently has 12 members and meets every other week. A leadership conference is held at Michigan State University in October.
“Part of the curriculum in the business department is introducing (students) to the world of business,” said LOHS business teacher Tina Steele. “(The club) is the easiest way to do it. We started it hoping the kids would have an interest.”
Ohlrich said most of the club’s members are freshmen.
“So we can grow by leaps and bounds,” she said.
Fortin earned a medallion for her placing at the state competition but has not received it yet. Also an LOHS cheerleader, she hopes to stay involved with the business club next year.

Three classes of second-graders from Clear Lake Elementary School spent the morning of Oct. 29 touring various local businesses in downtown Oxford.
Students learned about the difference between goods and services; the contributions small businesses make in terms of paying local taxes for public services, providing jobs and donating to charities; and what’s available in their own community.
They visited Funky Monkey Toys, PKSA Karate, Soothe Your Soul, Boulevard Boutique and Johnston Photography.
‘Across the United States, there’s 28 million small businesses,? said Tom Jones, owner of Funky Monkey Toys. ‘Even though we’re small, we employ a lot of people all across the country.?
Clear Lake students did everything from shopping for toys to performing karate-style kicks.
They learned some valuable real-world lessons and pumped a few dollars into the local economy.